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All those people that were complaining about the possibility of Detroit signing Andre Iguodala need to reevaluate because it looks like the Pistons biggest target is the even more divisive Josh Smith.
Adrian Wojnarowski, of course, has the details:
Detroit Pistons general manager Joe Dumars met with Atlanta Hawks forward Josh Smith at 12:01 a.m. ET with a plan to make the free agent forward a substantial four-year offer, league sources told Yahoo! Sports.
Atlanta has shown far more interest in working sign-and-trade arrangements for Smith than re-signing him to a long-term deal, league sources said.
Along with re-signing point guard Jose Calderon, Smith is the Pistons' top priority on the market, league sources told Y! Sports.
The Pistons planned to make a preemptive strike on Smith, understanding that he's a secondary priority for several teams awaiting the resolution of the Dwight Howard derby, sources said.
This is just ... not a good idea.
Smith can't play small forward in Detroit because he has no range and will be 30 during the life of any 4-year deal. And he's a worse player than Greg Monroe.
He takes bad shots. I mean, he posted negative offensive win shares last season for crying out loud (h/t to DBB's Mike Payne for that depressing stat).
He's still a good defender but not worth near the substantial money that Dumars is about to offer him. I am going to go to sleep quite depressed and hoping that whatever money Detroit offers is turned down.
But hey, at least Wojo also indicates that the Pistons are seriously interested in bringing Calderon back, right? Right?
UPDATE: The Woj piece also had this to say at the end.
Please sign Iguodala instead. Please sign Iguodala instead. Also, the fact that Dumars is meeting with Iggy at all at least tells me that he is not going into that meeting with Smith with the mindset that he won't take "No" for an answer.
Vincent Goodwill also has some news to add to the situation:
#Pistons believe Josh Smith can play the 3 and spend time at the four as well. So he can play with Monroe/Drummond, then with either/or
— Vincent Goodwill (@vgoodwill) July 1, 2013
Just asked a source if the #Pistons will offer Josh Smith the max, the answer: "Absolutely not."
— Vincent Goodwill (@vgoodwill) July 1, 2013